Many Americans are greatly concerned about a President who exhibits king-like behavior. They point to his incessant need to name organizations, buildings, and initiatives after himself; and his compulsion to adorn himself with gold, and lofty titles. They balk at his many highly questionable executive orders – many of which have been struck down by courts, and yet still fail to shift his courses of action. They note the level of effusive sycophancy exhibited by his cabinet, and White House staff toward this man. They reference the manner in which he makes official, public decrees and pronouncements to the nation via social media. They cringe at his wholesale repudiation of accountability. They observe the punitive manner in which the free press is treated when it speaks circumspectly about him, his administration, and his policies. They worry about a leader who daily threatens allies, and other sovereign nation-states with prideful boasting, armed incursions, and conquest.
Historically, the Church has ebbed and waned through all sorts of civil government. She often thrives through eras of great dictatorial pressure, while languishing during long periods of economic freedom. While a democratic, constitutional capitalism is enormously desirable, and offers the gospel many advantages, scripture never promises the Church fruitfulness depending on the form of government it is able to surround itself with. Neither God, nor the gospel is that chained to the machinations of human systems.
What heaven is concerned about, is a Church who exhibits idolatrous behavior. For thousands of years, the people of God, under both the old covenant and the new have needed to watch for the encroachment of idolatry – whether in wealthy and educated societies, or primitive and impoverished cultures.
The Bible warns pagans, Jews, and Christians about the constant danger to lay aside the truth of the One True and Living God, and embrace the temptations of idolatry. The Bible also lays out intricate details about how a nation, family, or fellowship can be redeemed from their idolatrous ways. (I’ve written about God’s definition of idolatry, and His passionate ability to set us free from idolatry, here.)
Throughout the ages, the people of God have universally agreed that when four chief dynamics crop up within a people-group, they are engaging in idolatrous behavior. This is the way idolatry operates within humanity – even in our 21c, wealthy, free, and promotion-heavy evangelical family. We dare not believe we are immune to the lure of this devilish ploy, simply because we don’t bow down to edifices made of wood or stone. Here are the four features of idolatry that are common to every generation.
A. Idolatry tells us what is TRUE and what is FALSE. It determines our perception of reality by advancing certain narratives as factual, and real, and other storylines as specious and deceptive.
B. Idolatry tells us what is GOOD and what is EVIL. It defines the elements within the culture that are beneficial, and life-giving. And they identify what will contribute to corporate destruction, and who the nefarious players are.
C. Idolatry tells us what is WISE and what is FOOLISH behavior. It chooses our course of action, and predicts which ones will produce the greatest good. It determines what righteousness looks like, and what unrighteousness looks like; which attitudes and activities will result in the maximum blessing, and which will lead to ruin.
D. Idolatry can also tell us what god, or God is like. Is He tolerant, or intolerant? Is He vengeful? Is He gracious? Does He respond to sacrifice? What kind of obedience does He demand of us? Is He forgiving? This aspect of idolatry varies widely. It can merely lead us to believe wrong things about the True God. Or it can present us with an entirely different god, who is quite unlike the Living God Who is revealed in the Bible.
Right now, depending on what part of MAGA you’re looking at, the relationship of secularists, religious, and Bible-toting evangelicals with Donald Trump is exhibiting at least three of the four classic marks of idolatry. For the last ten years we have increasingly leaned on him, and the pundits, pastors and prophets that mediate him, to tell us what is, and is not true; what’s good, and who’s evil; as well as what the right, and wrong courses of action are – even when it requires that we distance ourselves from respected relationships with experts in the field, laws, courts, organizations, other conservative thinkers, and even the Word of God itself.
I’ve said it before. No other single individual in our lifetimes has played more of a determining factor in how the church, the covenant people of God in America, view what is real, what is evil, and what is the righteous course of action, than Donald J. Trump. The fact that we have allowed this one individual to hold such sway over our mind, heart and will, makes our relationship with him distinctly idolatrous.
To engage in idolatry is to “go to war with God”. To dismiss, or wink at our idolatry is to be careless about enmity with God. This is why the Lord is calling His sons and daughters to His threshing floor in this hour. What does a people established upon the sure mercy and grace of a loving God have to fear in coming to the light of His intimate counsel?
Beloved. We do well to bring our personal, and collective ways before the Lord, and let Him illuminate where, and how we have inordinately given ourselves, even in small ways, to attitudes and loyalties that diminish our trust in God for truth, goodness, wisdom, and righteousness.
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am.” (John 17:24)
The Lord is committed to His Bride being WITH HIM WHERE HE IS. (John 17:24) This petition from Jesus, is God asking God for you and I to walk in covenant fidelity with Himself. This isn’t merely about Jesus asking the Father for us to be seated next to Him at a wedding banquet, as uber-glorious as that reality is. It’s ALSO about us living submitted to, and aligned to all the ways of our Bridegroom-King.
Jesus has already pledged to be WITH US, EVEN TO THE ENDS OF THE AGE. (Matthew 28:20) If we are born-again, our Savior-King is faithfully with us in ALL circumstances: heartache, loneliness, affliction, persecution, poverty, abundance, applause, victory and judgment.
What Jesus is seeking, is for our hearts to be filled with divine might, insight, and passion to not be put off by all the noise and the shrapnel of the world, and find our place in the literal Presence of the good Shepherd-King Himself.
And not only this, but to also understand the nuances of His heart. We aren’t with Him as mere servants. We’re with Him as beloved friends, compatriots, allies – indeed as those who are betrothed to this beautiful resurrected, Jewish Man, Who is ordained of the Father to rule the nations of the earth. He wants us maritally yoked with Himself – meaning, that we share in the same authority, vision, thoughts, emotions, strategies, and spirit that He lives in, knowing that our destiny is inextricably linked to Him, and His way in the cosmos.
Right now, what is CHIEFLY on the heart of the Anointed-King are two thoughts:
1. “WHAT IS YOUR WILL FATHER?”
AND,
2. “WHERE IS MY BRIDE? WHAT KIND OF ZEAL, AND FEAR, AND NEED, AND FAITH IS SHE WALKING WITH? IS SHE WITH ME, AS I MOVE ON THE EARTH? IS SHE WALKING IN LOVE LIKE I AM? LOVE TOWARD HUMANITY, AND CHIEFLY LOVE TOWARDS ME?”
Family of God, we cannot BE WITH HIM WHERE HE IS without talking to Him in what He is doing in our lives, and in our world. And we won’t truly be all present to Him without dialoguing with Him about the real mysteries, falsehoods, temptations, and hopes that storm our hearts.
What does this mean practically? John 17:24 is Jesus inviting His Bride into the prayer. This is how, and much of where we ARE WITH HIM WHERE HE IS. Our King is first a Son, Who ever lives to intercede. (Hebrews 7:25) And, the fact of the matter is, we won’t align our hearts to His, on the run – or in a 90 minute Sunday morning experience, an altar call, a 15-minute devotional reading, or even a men’s group Bible study. These are all VERY GOOD things. But unless we’re in the sacred, focused, Word-centered space of honest, vulnerable conversation with Jesus; where we can hear His distinct Voice addressing distinct issues and needs in our personal lives, we won’t know the deep, authentic strength He wants to give us, so that we’re not moved, or swept up in the epic rage that screeches around us.
Beloved. HEAVEN HAS NO BACK-UP PLAN FOR PRAYER. If we thoroughly see the need for us to be close to Him through great seasons of tribulation, THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR INTIMACY WITH HIM.
Jesus says: “Stay close to Me, as I move to save, judge, deliver, rebuke, encourage and dance. Watch, and honor what I do. I’m not lost. I’m keeping perfect pace with the Father. And We’re winning on the earth. Ha! (Yes, He laughs… Psalm 2:4) It’s not even a fair fight… MY BRIDE, I WANT YOU WITH ME, WHERE I AM.”
____________________ JSB • March, 2026
Family. Would you be willing to help us financially? All Nations House of Prayer Southwest is committed to meeting the unique spiritual needs of this hour, and a portion of the hunger of our culture to have holy space where individuals, families, and leaders may encounter the living Voice of the Father.
NOTE: On Tuesday, March 10, ALL NATIONS held a ZOOM OPEN CONVERSATION about this topic, relevant to the Lord’s urgent call for the Church to dialogue with Him in prayer. Here is a link to thisZOOM CALL. May the Lord draw us to Himself in this hour of epic humility!
Over the last ten days, ALL NATIONS has had some of the most extraordinarily prophetically active days of our eight-year existence. The Lord shared this precipitating word with us on February 24, 2026 – five days before the United States and Israel launched their military-campaign against the nation of Iran:
“It’s the threshing-floor or war…”
The Lord is Speaking – not mumbling. His message is not a cryptic mystery. Neither is it complicated. The Lord is making it patently clear, both in the spirit, and the flesh to those who are willing to bear the cross that comes with faithfully responding to the kairos Word of the Lord.
The Church in America can either come to the Lord in humility, repentance, contrition, and the fear of the Lord, or we will continue to escalate our war against the Kingdom of God through our pride; our abusive ways; our jurist accusations; love of hostility; our self-exoneration; our racial insensitivity; our political idolatry; our sexual perversion; denials and obfuscation of the truth; our disregard for meekness and peace-making; and our zealous normalization of these qualities within the Household of God.
Of course, 95% of our family considers these charges hyper-critical, woke, fanatical, and even heretical. But the fact of the matter is, YHWH has never curtailed His judgments simply because His analysis comprised the minority report.
In (Exodus 32:17-18) the Word of God tells us that the Lord hears war much differently than we do. Our festive, political cheering sounds like war in our camp to heaven. And right now, by His grace, the Spirit is broadcasting how our celebration is being received in the courts of the Lord.
What does the One Who sits upon the throne hear coming from our evangelical camp right now?
He hears a people who clamor for war; and who, in spite of previous protestations, choose war instead of being broken, vulnerable and honest about our unrighteous ways, and being clothed by the redemptive blood of the Lamb.
Question: What happens to a people who are intent on building upon sand, and refuse to humble themselves before the Lord’s many warnings? What befalls those who, instead, clothe themselves in raging accusation, self-justifying narratives, and hostile conspiracies?
Often, the Lord responds to the spiritual deafness of His people, with a natural, visual picture of our spiritual condition. In other words, HE USES SIGN LANGUAGE to arrest our carnal senses when we’ve lost our soulish ability to hear His Voice.
In (Ezekiel 7), the Lord sets forth His judgments upon a people who had steadfastly drawn up a battle-front against the Lord’s prophetic trumpet-call to His threshing floor. Because the people were belligerently combating His will, the Lord tells them, He is about to visit them with armed conflict. The prophecy was meant to pierce the deception of their heart with a living picture of the actual condition of their relationship with God. The destruction that Ezekiel presents to the people in (v. 1 – 15) is both intense and tragic.
EZEKIEL 7 3 I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. 4 My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; but I will repay your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst; then you shall know that I am the Lord!’ 5 “Thus says the Lord God: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; behold, it has come! 6 An end has come, the end has come; it has dawned for you; behold, it has come! 7 Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; the time has come, a day of trouble is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains. 8 Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, and spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. 9 ‘My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes. 10 ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 11 Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, none of their multitude, none of them; nor shall there be wailing for them. 12 The time has come, the day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is on their whole multitude. 13 For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, though he may still be alive; for the vision concerns the whole multitude, and it shall not turn back; no one will strengthen himself who lives in iniquity. 14 They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, but no one goes to battle; for My wrath is on all their multitude. 15 The sword is outside, and the plague within. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword; and whoever is in the city, plague will devour him.
If we’re only seeing the attacks on Iran on a socio-political level, we’re missing the SIGN-LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN. We’re not receiving the communication the Spirit wants us to grasp. This war is a blaring siren to the American evangelical Church. And the major storyline is NOT about praying for the liberation of the repressed Iranian people. Neither is it about denigrating an authoritarian leader who asserts that he himself is “peace incarnate”.
Allow me to connect the dots. The code-name for our country’s military campaign is #EpicFury. (Of course it is.) In this hashtag, the Lord is giving us the identity of the crusading spirit that our evangelical family has given “enthusiastic approval” (Romans 1:32) to over the last 10 years… And, for anyone who is remotely familiar with the eschatological texts, “#EpicFury should sound exceedingly similar to the phrase David uses in Psalm 2:1 “Why do the nations rage?”
Right now, the Voice of the Lord is ringing: “Repent!! Repent of your #EpicFury, Church! You call it peace; valor; protection and righteousness – but it’s a manifestation of the war; dishonor, abuse and faithlessness that has been churning in you. Humble yourselves. Come to My threshing-floor. Let me show you what’s seeking to master you in your spirit. Let Me lead you to repentance. Let me restore the fear of the Lord to your theologies. If you do not, you willcontinue to escalate waragainst My Spirit… Come and let Me cultivate radical meekness, uncircumstantial joy, earthquake-proof faith, vibrant righteousness, peaceable wisdom, unoffendable tenderness, and the visage of My Son within the core of your being.”
This is no hour to defend “self” with “on-the-run” human opinion re: the Lord’s eternal plot line. This is an hour for the people of God to go into the tent, to be made humble, ask, listen, and receive the vital understanding of the Lord’s narrative. There’s so much more going on than what we’ll read about in the opinion section of CNN, or World News. AND, because it’s His doing, it’s SO MUCH MORE fascinating, AND LIFE-GIVING to hear it from the Voice of the King Himself! This is an hour to go into the chambers of the Lord and get the inside, behind-the-scenes discernment that will root ourselves to His heart.
Beloved, He is beneath, and beside and above us in all this. He knows precisely how to best destabilize our carnal crusades, and our false protective coverings, so that the Bride makes herself ready (Revelation 19:7) for her Bridegroom, with assured abandon.
In another hour (much like the hour of Ezekiel 7, many years later) when the people of God were self-righteously fervent for their own security, and again rebelling against the plans of the Lord, the Spirit interrupted their misguided passion and ambition through the prophet Isaiah who declared: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin… Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this Word, and trust in oppression and perversity, and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall… And The Lord shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare… For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “IN REPENTANCE AND PATIENT QUIETNESS YOU SHALL BE SAVED; IN UNDISTURBED TRUST SHALL BE YOUR STRENGTH… But you would not. And you said, “No, for we will flee…” Therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride swiftly.” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill. Therefore THE LORD WILL WAIT, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore HE WILL BE EXALTED, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.” (Isaiah 30:1, 9, 15, 16-18)
There are three lessons for us here in Isaiah 30. 1. In an hour when the people of God are found in rebellion to His ways, the Spirit of the Lord urgently bids us to come before Him in repentance, patience, quietness, contentment, and trust, so that He can bring us forth, aligned to the strategies of the King, in meekness, and purified, God-dependent faith.
2. When we run from His summons to His threshing floor, He will intensify His pursuit of us, using spectacular, current events like #EpicFury as sign-posts to divulge the seriousness of our condition, and the earnestness of His invitation.
3. Here’s the astounding part – and, quite honestly, the part we (I, myself) would rather impatiently push through. When we DON’T wait; when we aren’t patient; when we rebel, and flee from the threshing-floor into our own flesh, the Lord staggers us. (He is SO not like me…) Isaiah 30:18 says He not only tells us the way; He not only gives us sign-language about the way. He EXALTS HIMSELF (v.18) BY ENTERING INTO THE WAY HIMSELF! – and then He, and all of Who He is, dynamically WAITS for us to join Him in the waiting…
Essentially, Isaiah is discovering/prophesying what Paul wrote to Timothy: “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.” (2 Timothy 2:12-14)
The Lord is saying, “COME TO MY THRESHING FLOOR SO WE CAN SORT OUT THE ISSUES IN YOUR HEART THAT ARE WARRING AGAINST MY RIGHTEOUS WAYS. IF YOU WON’T COME; IF YOU WON’T WAIT ON ME, I WILL WAIT ON YOU. I URGE YOU TO MEET ME IN DOING WHAT I AM DOING. I AM THAT COMMITTED TO YOU BEING WITH ME WHERE I AM.”
Right now, the most secure and life-giving place on earth is found on the threshing floor of the Lord. And He takes His stand there patiently. But should we continue to refuse to see Him there; should we persist in building our lives, ministries, and nation everywhere but the threshing floor of the Lord, He promises us: “I 100% know how to destabilize the thin props of your many excuses to come to Me.”
Continued…
____________________ JSB • February 28, 2026 (Updated March 6, 2026)
More than 200 complaints filed by US service members have alleged that numerous military commanders are using extreme Christian expression to explain the conflict with Iran as part of Biblical prophecy.
Troops across all branches – including Army, Marines, Air Force, and Space Force – reported being told the war was “all part of God’s divine plan.”
In one complaint, a superior was reported to have declared, “This war is a prelude to Armageddon.”
In a separate complaint, an NCO reported that a combat-unit commander opened a briefing by urging troops not to fear the situation in Iran. “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran, and mark His return to Earth.”
Friends. It’s vital that we’re very very clear about this.
The exhortations being given to our troops, are referencing a false Jesus; and the claims about the commander in chief constitute a false “christ”. This, combined with Secretary Hegspeth’s statements last month about soldiers “winning salvation for their soul” by “laying down their lives for the nation” (February 5, 2026 • National Prayer Breakfast) constitutes a false gospel, and a false ala. antiChrist, kingdom. This is NOT the Kingdom of God, nor the way of the Kingdom of God. It is a false doctrine. All adherence to, defense of, and/or toleration of this level of perversion of the Word of God should be understood as a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) from bonafide faith in Jesus Christ. And every leader who promotes these false doctrines should be treated as a “false teacher”. (2 Peter 2:19)
It can’t be overstated. Christian Nationalism, as it exists in our household right now, presents the most insidious threat to the integrity of evangelical Christianity that our generation has experienced. Millions have subscribed to a false gospel that bears no cross, and will tragically be lost for all eternity on account of the church’s refusal to
A. Humble ourselves and repent of our ways before the Lord on His threshing floor;
B. Take up the Bible, and “carefully examine the scriptures daily”;
C. Contend earnestly (in both dialogue and daily lifestyle) for the faith once delivered (Jude 1:3)
(March 14, 2026 Note) I was talking to someone on the phone last night who informed me that the Church in an entire nation is being led to the threshing floor of the Lord, and making elaborate plans for a Joel 2 assembly in the early part of next year. For security reasons, I can’t identify this nation. But in a year, watch the Joel 2:24 blessing that jumps from this holy gathering.
To those who humble themselves into “the sacred assembly” (Joel 2:15) “The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust… and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you.” (Joel 2:24-26)
If your pastor, ministry leader, or small group leader is not leading your spiritual family to humble themselves; if they are not scrutinizing these cross-less corruptions of the way of Christ, in sermons, Bible studies, articles and statements; if he, or she is found winking at, or preaching these things, it’s time to follow the admonition of the Lord, have a sober, intentional conversation about these matters, with a view toward not accepting a compromise to these false teachings. If they will not listen to you, bring in others who share your concerns. And if they still refuse to consider the seriousness of these points of contention, it’s time to separate yourself, and your family, from these “destructive heresies”. (2 Peter 2:1)
“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!” (2 Corinthians 11:4)
“But there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1)
“Many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered… Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality.” (2 Peter 2:2,19)
“As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9)
“I exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” (Jude 1:3-5)
“Therefore, beloved friends, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when you come into His presence.” (2 Peter 3:14)
In an hour of intensifying pretense, darkness and deceit, living and loving with vulnerability in His light is a radical act of prophetic faith.
No one needs to tell us that we’re living through an age when pretense, deceit, and darkness is intensifying all around us. Every day we are surrounded by “competing narratives” (whether they come from social media, news outlets, or face to face interaction with others) – statistics, anecdotes, rhetoric and storylines that bid to win our trust, and our loyalty to silos of thought, faith, political and cultural ideology. A man could claim there is no such thing as gravity and win a great crowd in our world, today* – provided the one making the assertion could convince the insecure, and fickle masses that they could keep themselves from the evil threat in their world by believing something that was so obviously upside-down to common experience.
Our world is filled with people – we often call “leaders” – who are ready to make this claim about any subset of reality they care to comment upon:
“Masks are bad.”
“Killing your baby in your womb is healthy.”
“Feeling contrition about racism and bigotry is nefarious.”
“Threatening to annex another nation/state is good.”
“Empathy is evil.”
“50 year old men having sex with 14 year old girls is normal.”
“Telling a 50 yr old man he can’t be a 30-yr old woman is oppressive.”
“Not being accountable for one’s abuse is fine.”
“Helping others identify idolatry in our culture is divisive.”
“Spending too much time in prayer is dysfunctional.”
There is no end to the type of pronouncements about life in a fallen world that vie for our allegiance – ALL for the purpose of bringing more security and contentment into our short, little lives. And we humans devour these pronouncements, like starving dogs. Reading news reports; doing 15 minutes of “deep dive” google-searches; padding our world-view; building our towers of mutual strength; while assailing the towers of those who threaten our towers.
This was the world that Jesus came into. Humanity then was no different than us. The Romans and the Jews were both seeking security and deliverance from insecurity. They both sought a truth that promised them stability in a world filled with destabilizing enemies.
The Romans largely sought to achieve it through order and military enforcement of their order. The Jews looked for a deliverer from Roman order. And without a deliverer on the horizon, the Jews fashioned religious principles that allowed them to justify murder and insurrection. Both wanted security. Both legitimized the destruction of others in order to obtain it.
By the time we get to Luke 11, Jesus has done a lot of things to win the attention of the crowd. They’ve seen that He can do stuff that others can’t. He can provide lunch for everyone, and He can clear out their sick wards. He LOOKS LIKE someone we can trust to make our lives more secure. And so Jesus finds many being attracted to Himself. The crowds are learning to trust Jesus. But Jesus (rightly) doesn’t trust the crowds.
It was to the crowd that was building around Him that Jesus spoke these words in Luke 11:34-36.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is (actually) not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.” (Luke 11:34-36)
Huh?
“I came with a touch of arthritis, and seconds on lunch. Why is Jesus talking about my eyes? How can my ‘body be filled with darkness’? What?? Do a miracle, and change the circumstances in our world Jesus of Nazareth!”
Fortunately for them, and for us, Jesus wasn’t swayed by the demanding needs of the crowds. He knew that what was in the heart of all humanity was what needed changing. The world was evil – submerged in darkness – and under the reign of darkness – that was the perpetual order of the age the crowd lived in.
The hope that Jesus was wanting to instill in them wasn’t one that changed the world’s baseline order. It would remain “evil” until He came and deposed its evil ruler. The hope that Jesus was offering to Jew and Roman alike was the promise of freedom from interior insecurity – a security that everyone could have, regardless of their world-condition – a security that came with Him as the chief, and sole Determiner of truth, reality, and salvation.
But here’s the catch. Here was the stumbling block for those who pursued Jesus’ promises. The REAL PROBLEM, and the REAL THREAT wasn’t out there in the world – amidst some exterior consuming force. The REAL PROBLEM was inside us. Me. You. Our families. Our heroes of the faith. Our mentors. Our leaders. Us.
Until we were ready to acknowledge that the greatest destabilizing threat to our well-being was what was surging inside of our own souls – every breath of every day – we were not ready to receive the level of radical leadership that Jesus came to kindle. His Kingdom was one that took root in the nuclear-core of the soul, and then worked its way out with integrity, in every other place the soul went.
Furthermore, in order for the soul to garner this type of authentic, “sufficient for the world”, strength, it needed to acknowledge that it was innately corrupt; broken; deficient; bent on evil; and bent by evil. It needed to agree with Jesus about how wicked and dysfunctional it was. It needed to let Jesus’ Light, illuminate itself to its true condition.
And then, (as if that was not enough) it needed to learn to let Jesus CONTINUE to bring His Light to bear on the inner workings of the individual soul. ONLY THEN would Jesus’ Leadership have sway and gravity within the person – and by extension – in the world.
The devil wants us to believe the evil is out there – threatening our right to have stability, and contentment. Jesus quietly tells those who have ears to hear; those who are weaning their convictions from the thousand narratives in the atmosphere of the evil one; that the real threat, the peril that He’s come to deliver us from; is the evil that colors everyone of our souls.
In a world that’s incessantly pointing at others, who wants to be “that fool” who is gazing into their own soul? Who would believe that the Kingdom of goodness, justice, kindness, faithfulness, love, and beauty could eventually make so many consequential changes in the whole world, while being so intimately administrated within our own hearts?
Jesus.
It takes faith to walk in the thorough way of Jesus. And it takes vulnerability to walk in faith; believing Jesus, and turning down the noise about the looming dangers encircling us.
Don’t believe the hype of those who use Jesus’ Name to fix everything else OUT THERE. That’s living with the light that Jesus calls “actually, darkness”.
Walk in the quiet Light of His Voice that offends you with the truth about what needs “fixing” inside of your self.
…from our Lord, and four sister churches in the first century.
The Lord is speaking the word PERSEVERANCE to His “holy ones” to a degree that I have never heard… As I’ve been praying through the many words, conversations and encouragements of this past week, the Lord has been forging a specific Word (from His messages to the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and Philadelphia) for the many who are PERSEVERING through this inflamed season of corporate judgment:
For the Saints in the Church in America • February 21, 2026
“I know your works, your PATIENCE, your TRIBULATION, and poverty of spirit, and that you CANNOT BEAR those who are evil. I know you are dwelling where satan’s throne is. And you HOLD FAST TO MY NAME, and DID NOT DENY MY FAITH. Although you have A LITTLE STRENGTH, you have KEPT MY WORD, and have NOT DENIED MY NAME. You have PERSEVERED and LABORED FOR MY NAME’S SAKE and have NOT BECOME WEARY. I also know you have TESTED those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are in covenant with Me, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which YOU ARE ABOUT TO SUFFER. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, and you will have TRIBULATION, that you may be TESTED. HOLD FAST what you have, that NO ONE MAY TAKE YOUR CROWN. KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU! Be FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, and I will give you the crown of eternal life.”
We fool ourselves if we believe the enemy of our Kingdom is not strategizing a perfectly horrible outcome to this ten-year plunge into his evil ways. More than experiencing the natural consequences of our departure from faith in Jesus Christ, the devil seeks an end-destruction of those who remain steadfast in their love, and fidelity to Jesus – both spiritually, and physically. (Meaning financial, relational, ecclesiastical consequences – not necessarily loss of life…) Again. We fool ourselves if we believe we’ve experienced the worst. The devil is never one to not take advantage of crossless hostility and incivility. It is for this reason that the Lord is speaking PERSEVERANCE in this hour.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It does neither us, nor our “argument”, nor His Kingdom any good, if we resist the antiChrist spirit in MAGA, while failing to bear our cross FOR Jesus. One form of faithlessness is no better than another. The Lord is breathing PERSEVERANCE into the mouths of His prophets, right now in order to bring His Bride into lifestyles that…
1. speak the truth with integrity to the Spirit,
2. maintain an ear toward the nature of the Lord’s precise judgment upon our family,
3. cultivate an intercessory, “stand in the gap” heart,
4. possess a clear understanding of the Lord’s pattern/invitation to redemption,
5. are personally vigilant to “take every thought captive” so that we retain an obedient, “soul-tenderness” to Jesus, Himself.
Without these five elements, we ARE “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Peter 3:17) from the vibrant (Galatians 5:6) “faith with love” that Jesus has purposed for us to walk in.
We need to understand the psychological phenomenon that’s infected our culture right now. From our congressional halls, to our church gatherings, millions in our nation are being swallowed up in what social-psychologists call, “the cult of personality”. And it was on full, text-book display during Pam Bondi’s (February 11, 2026) hearings with the House Judiciary Committee. [C-SPAN]
Instead of answering specific questions about justice issues at hand (what a United States Attorney General does for a living), Bondi repeatedly (on five separate occasions) launched into what Max Weber (1864-1920) called “APOTHEOSIS” – the technical term for the exaggerated, unquestioning adulation, and extreme idealization of a leader that involves the use of propaganda, conspiracy, legend-telling, vilification of detractors and persecution complex to portray a leader as heroic, infallible, and worthy of manifest worship.
After a year back in the White House, Mr. Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a monarch, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.
While Mr. Trump has spent a lifetime promoting his personal brand, slapping his name on hotels, casinos, airplanes, even steaks, neckties and bottled water, what he is doing in his second term as president comes closer to building a cult of personality the likes of which has never been seen in American history. Other presidents sought to cultivate their reputations, but none went as far as Mr. Trump has to create a mythologized, superhuman and omnipresent persona leading to idolatry.
Cabinet meetings have become long, huddle-sessions in which individual department secretaries seek to outdo each other in heaping fawning, over-the-top praise upon the President.
His White House is pressuring the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery to display portraits of Mr. Trump by his supporters. A group of cryptocurrency investors has shelled out $300,000 to forge a 15-foot-tall gold-covered bronze statue of Mr. Trump called “Don Colossus” to be installed at his golf complex in Doral, Fla.
His administration is considering designating a new class of battleships in Mr. Trump’s name. His allies are pressuring foreign leaders to endorse his bid for the Nobel Peace Prize and threatening consequences for resisting. Some supporters in Congress have even proposed adding his face to Mount Rushmore, an effort that, for the moment, has gained little traction.
What distinguishes APOTHEOSIS from normal popularity is A. the “demand for verbal adulation”, (the effusive glorification we heard from Bondi yesterday) B. unquestioned, final control over the narrative, and C. a “circle-the-wagons” defense of the leader himself, (what we see in Dutch Sheets’ appeal below) …all of which flows from the living leader him/herself.
The slavish following that surrounds Trump is about more than mere vanity. “This is not just egotistical self-satisfaction, it’s a way of expanding presidential power,” say Harvard scholar, and presidential historian, Michael Beschloss.
APOTHEOSIS is often fostered by totalitarian regimes (like Stalin, Mao, Sadaam Hussein, and smaller communities like Charles Manson and Jim Jones) to ascend to greater degrees of unrestricted power.
Indeed, last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump suggested that authoritarianism was not necessarily something to eschew. “Usually they say, ‘He’s a horrible dictator-type person, I’m a dictator,’” he said openly. “But sometimes, you need a dictator.”
APOTHEOSIS is sometimes also described as “abdication syndrome”, where followers surrender their critical thinking to a parental figure, who becomes the “savior” for the population in question, providing their subjects with the narratives that tell them how to understand, and operate within their society.
Benjamin E. Goldsmith of the Australian National University and Lars J.K. Moen of the University of Vienna, who have studied Mr. Trump’s hold on his supporters, and published a paper on the abnormality in the Political Psychology journal, said the personality cult allowed Mr. Trump to dominate Republican primary contests, right-wing media and his party’s majorities in Congress. Those who stand against Mr. Trump are deemed traitors and punished accordingly.
“For us, this is the major threat to U.S. democracy from Trump’s cult-like following,” they wrote. “Congress is transformed into an enabler, even when the executive makes disastrous policies, undermines the rule of law or might attempt to fix elections. The system can transform into an electoral autocracy.”
Apotheosis binds followers of a movement to their leader more than to any particular policy prescription, making his success or failure their own. Veneration and loyalty are central and ideology secondary. The leader is presented as infallible, uniquely qualified, even divinely delivered for this moment in history.
Mr. Trump has played to these themes since taking the national political stage. “I alone can fix it,” he declared when running in 2016. “I myself am peace. Believe it.” he trumpeted weeks days before the 2024 election. “I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said on being inaugurated again last year.
From a Christian standpoint, what we are witnessing is a significant part of the power of a “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11) overtaking the critical analysis, and Berean thinking of a people-group. This is a supernatural distortion of reality that the Lord Himself will give to those who take increasing pleasure in unrighteousness. (v.12)
THE antiChrist will demand APOTHEOSIS – AND be more cunning and serpentine in his constraint for it, than any figure ever.
“And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” (Revelation 13:14-15)
Whether you believe Trump is an antiChrist, or not, here’s the point: the same spirit that is demanding his defensive veneration today is the same spirit that will be demanding the veneration of the beast in fulfillment of Revelation 13 in the days ahead. If our American evangelical family can’t withstand the smaller temptation today, how do we expect to be able to stand the vastly greater pressure later?
In the Words of the prophet Jeremiah: “If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with horses?” (Jeremiah 12:5)
But here’s the kicker. The “greater pressure” will not only come from the power of the beast himself. It will come from our own sisters and brothers, all around us, who shape the social mind-set that insists that there is only one acceptable way of viewing the individuals, circumstances and dynamics within the culture. Social psychologists call this corporeality, “group-think”.
Group-think occurs within a collection of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. The desire for cohesiveness, within a group produces an inclination among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the community to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision at the expense of critical (ala. Berean) evaluation.
Group-think requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions. Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”. Members of a group can often feel under peer pressure to “go along with the crowd” for fear of “rocking the boat” or of how their speaking out will be perceived by the rest of the group. Group interactions tend to favor clear and harmonious agreements and it can be a cause for concern when little to no exterior arguments for better beliefs, outcomes and structures are called to question. Groupthink can often lead to the creation of “yes men”, because group activities and group projects in general make it extremely easy to pass on not offering constructive opinions, and potentially more fruitful options.
Psychologist Irving Janis (Yale University) pioneered the initial research on the group-think theory. He writes: “I use the term group-think as a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. Group-think is a term of the same order as the words in the newspeak vocabulary George Orwell used in his dismaying world of 1984. In that context, group-think takes on an invidious connotation. Exactly such a connotation is intended, since the term refers to a deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgments as a result of group pressures… The main principle of group-think is this: ‘The more amiability and esprit de corps there is among the members of a policy-making in-group, the greater the danger that independent critical thinking will be replaced by group-think, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against out-groups‘.”
Jeremiah writes to strengthen the people against these insidious, and potentially ruinous interpersonal forces: “For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you.” (Jeremiah 12:7)
This is the vital question before the church in this hour. Does our American evangelical family have the discipline, and prophetic fortitude that will enable us to escape the vortex of APOTHEOSIS that has engulfed SO MUCH of our Church family throughout history?
In the rest of chapter 12’s message, Jeremiah references the fierce jealousy of God to produce a people who are not ravaged by the destructive, and despotic ways of satan’s tyranny: “Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion underfoot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate; desolate, it mourns to Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no one takes it to heart. The plunderers have come on all the desolate heights in the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end of the land; no flesh shall have peace.” (Jeremiah 12:10-12)
Beloved. The zeal of the Lord stands in wholehearted opposition to the devouring desolation that always comes with self-adulating power. Ultimately, should we not take His prophetic counsel to heart, and see His Hand in what is arrayed against us (indeed, on behalf of our good), we will find our God in violent opposition to us. People of the Word need not be deceived about this reality.
Today is the day to avail ourselves of the full, circumspect counsel of our King. Today is the day to humble ourselves and take refuge in the watchful, inner-vigilance of prayer, and yield our flesh to the crucifying work of the Spirit, that we may develop an idol-intolerant heart, and a pure devotion to the exaltation of Jesus alone.
“O Lord, our God, masters other than You have ruled us, but we praise Your Name alone.” (Isaiah 26:13)
____________________ JSB • February, 2026
NOTE: If you’re curious: Here’s a very accessible, thorough, non-political article that helps break down the human components of cult-dynamics, (including apotheosis) so that they become more easily identifiable in our every-day world.
It’s 2026, and most Bible-believing followers of Christ honestly neither see what’s at risk inside ourselves, nor within our household. We have little perspective on what it is that the devil is attempting to wrest from our lives. And, in most cases, we give it up willingly, without even understanding what it is that we’re surrendering. The troubling truth is, without it, we (ourselves and the Bride) will never enter into the nobility of our destiny. What we’re blindly relinquishing is that precious.
Right now, the age-old deceiver is using thousands of voices (politicians, pundits, pastors, and prophets) in a full-press quest to divest the church of her cross.
These are the false christs, false teachers, and false prophets that Jesus warned us about. They have no value for walking in the manner that Jesus walked. Neither do they have a game plan for the Bride to come forth in glorious Christlikeness. They are literally hell-bent on agitating the faithful to lay down their cross, take up the power of the exalted flesh, and follow the spirit of anti-christ – no love; no Holy Spirit fruit; no humility; no death to self…
Millions around us, in our churches, our prayer gatherings, our home fellowships and our seminars are succumbing to the temptation, and enthusiastically handing the enemy of our souls, the very nexus of our covenant in Christ, and the one essential means by which we may bear the fruits of righteousness – our cross.
It is nothing short of the “falling away” from vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.
Chief among these incendiary voices are those who crusade to turn our nation back to God. Burning with an eternal flame of enmity, they intend to accomplish the feat by fiat. Their banner is a sword. Their mouths never tire of the propaganda. And, in spite of their desire to be known as “peacemakers”, their festivals are filled with the drums of war.
There is no humility in their spirits. No mutual confession that escapes their lips. No call to repentance that touches their own houses of ill-repute. Their’s is a perpetual campaign to destroy the “other”, in pursuit of an earthly utopia for the “unwoke”. Not a community of the redeemed – a society of the justified, the mutually adoring, and the worthy.
In 1930’s nationalist Germany, the new, spiring socio-political power within that nation sought a symbol to represent its vigor and devotion. The image it chose was one of a broken cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer perceived what his sisters and brothers were being seduced by, and wrote about it in his landmark book, “The Cost of Discipleship”. Essentially, Bonhoeffer’s message was, if we take up the emblem of naziism, and champion a crossless “kamph”, we, and the world around us will only have cheap grace, and a pretentious kingdom built upon edict, hostility, intolerance, platitudes, and the unrestrained appetites of the right-minded flesh.
The vast majority of German Christians did not heed Bonhoeffer’s cry to count the internal cost of remaining faithful to Christ. Instead, in their lust to become the master race of humanity, they exacted that cost from the lives of 50 million of their fellow human beings who opposed their “jihad”.
Such is the universal way of the antiChrist: glory without the agency of the cross.
When tempted in the desert, the true Christ, turned down the offer to receive the nations from the hands of the devil, who was offering it to Him without the messy need for a cross. Jesus had already determined to follow the plan of the Father, that would deliver both the rule and the redemption of the nations into His Hands via the way of the cross.
And when we see national prayer assemblies filled with self-vaunted rancor, and the honor of killing others for the glories of supremacy being esteemed as the pathway to eternal salvation, we know the devil has come to our doorstep as well.
Friends. Family in Christ. American evangelicalism is at a watershed moment. The crafty rhetoric of the deceiver is not only echoing from the White House, its found a foothold in the pulpits of our churches. We MUST attune our spiritual ears to the pride, the lust and the selfism, and hear his serpentine beguilement.
By his siren song, our apostolic virginity is being raped. The Name of our King is being coopted. Our witness is being bastardized. The fame of our God is being defaced. And unless we wake up from our intoxications, we are going to rush ourselves, our families, and many in our nation toward an everlasting fire that was only prepared for the devil and his angels.
We need the pure holiness of the Lord within our own bosom, twitching at every promise of greatness through self-promotion. Evil isn’t (only) coming with horns, dressed in drag. It’s coming wrapped in red, white and blue sentiment, and the magical touch of Meidas.
We MUST, in all our praying, speaking, meditating, studying, gathering, and debating cry out to the Spirit to bring us into the way of our cross! Should we not, we WILL exact the same price upon all others who oppose us in our gilded zeal.
“For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they set their aspirations on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19)
____________________ JSB • February, 2026
* At the February 5, 2026 Prayer Breakfast, Secretary Pete Hegseth made the following incredible statement to the assembled guests; pastors, evangelists, intercessors, government officials etc.: “The willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of one’s country is born in one thing: a deep and abiding belief in God’s love for us and his promise of eternal life. The scripture says, ‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.’ The warrior who is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country, and his Creator, that warrior finds eternal life.” (Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War • February 5, 2026) …and no one rose to object.
The idol is now on full display. The trumpets are bidding the “faithful” to bow. The sheep are being divided from the goats – real time.
Christian leader. In this hour, if you’re not making the way clear, you’re playing the role of Aaron. You’re an impediment to Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples. We are watching nothing less than the usurping of American evangelicalism by the spirit of antiChrist. Period.
After his curse-filled rant, (…at the NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST!) Trump announced that in a May 17 festival, he intends to declare the United States a Christian nation. Tragically, this assembly will be hailed by millions of our sisters and brothers, as a monumental step in the ascendency of the Kingdom of God. In truth, it promises to be the greatest desolating abomination our culture has ever witnessed – satan himself serving as the master of ceremonies where he will bestow glory upon a people who exalt self, and repudiate the need for a cross.
